


all and then most of you, some and now none of you

by msinformed13



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Timeline, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Childhood Friends, F/F, Family, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Growing Up Together, Lena Luthor Needs a Hug, Lena Luthor is a Gay Mess, Lesbian Lena Luthor, SuperCorp, The Night We Met, lena is a mother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 10:35:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13568793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/msinformed13/pseuds/msinformed13
Summary: {Lena, Kara, and Mike all get punished with indoor recess time for a whole week. On the first day, Kara sits down right next to Lena and begins to color. The brunette looks up from her book to regard the other girl with a confused stare, “What are you doing?”“Drawing a rocket.” Kara says as though it's obvious.“Why?”“Cause one day I’m gonna go to the moon.”“No, why are you doing that here?”Kara looks up at Lena for the first time, fixing the smaller girl with a determined look, “Cause you're my best friend now.”}Supercorp AU, growing up together and growing apart, angsty and fluffy but it has a hopeful ending





	1. Chapter 1

Lena Luthor is twenty four and she is doing her fucking best. Lena bites her bottom lip and swallows harshly. She will not let herself cry because she is a Luthor in all but blood, and Luthors do not cry, Luthors do not show weakness. She forces a small smile, as she listens passively to the conversation flowing around her at the reception while sneaking glances across the ballroom at the happy couple. Kara is stunning, of course she is. Lena hasn’t seen her since they were eighteen and still trying to make a long distance friendship work in college and sure she had seen photos on social media, but nothing could have prepared her for a grown up Kara Danvers in a wedding gown. 

She had sat through the ceremony earlier and quietly and pretended that it wasn’t absolutely killing her to see Kara walk down the aisle and say ‘I do’ to someone else. But she never had any claim on the other woman. They were never together, just best friends that could have been but never were and now she was sitting at a wedding she wished wasn’t happening beside a perfectly nice man who loves her dearly and Lena had wanted to scream. 

She didn’t. 

Jack places a hand on the small of her back and shoots her a little smile that asks what’s got her preoccupied. She merely shakes her head a little in answer and stands a bit closer into his side, letting him drape his arm around her waist. She drinks a little too much at the open bar and she lets Jack pull her onto the dance floor. They make adorable fools of themselves as they dance to some song that was popular when they were still in college and when a slower song comes on she lets him pull her into his arms and she rests her head on his shoulder and lets herself imagine that maybe this could be her wedding one day. Hers and Jack’s. Maybe. 

She doesn’t talk to the bride until much later. She excuses herself from the group of friends from when she was very young and growing up in Midvale and makes her way to the bathroom. There she finds Kara. 

The blonde is touching up her makeup in the mirror, and when her eyes fall on Lena’s reflection over her shoulder, she freezes, “Lee.” 

Lena forces a smile, “The ceremony was gorgeous.” 

“Thanks.” They fall into an awkward silence until Kara can’t stand it anymore, “I wasn’t sure if you were going to come. I’m glad you did.” 

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” 

Kara nods and bites her lip, through the exchange she still hasn’t turned and has just been making eye contact with Lena through the mirror. As if that is safer, as if that will make confronting this ghost less real, “I feel like I should say I’m sorry.” 

Lena’s brow furrows, “What for?” 

“I don’t know.” Kara shrugs then gestures a hand around her head, “All of this? I just- We were-” 

“You don’t need to apologize.” The brunette jumps in quickly. She really can’t deal with hearing this, with getting the confirmation that she wasn’t the only one who thought that what they had wasn’t insignificant, that they could have been more. 

Kara bites her lip and looks reluctant to drop it, “I can’t help it. I mean we were-”

“Were never together. We grew apart and that's just as much my fault as it ever was yours.” Lena covers. She should not feel like this, Kara’s not the only one who's moved on in the years since they had last talked. Lena has Jack, and while he’ll never be quite what she needs, they are happy and that ought to be enough. 

Kara recoils a bit from the bluntness of the statement but she recovers quickly, “I shouldn't have cut you off after Lex, but with my cousin-”

“I get it.” Lena says and she really does. She would hardly want to stay in contact if her best friends brother nearly caught her cousin in his homicidal rampage. And that was years ago, Lena has long since laid to rest those ghosts. 

Kara looks down and winds her fingers together, picking at her cuticles. Lena hates how she looks so sad on her big day and she can't help but step closer, “Remember when we were nine and for like two months straight all you wanted to do was play wedding?”

The blonde’s lips pull up in a small grin and she nods which Lena takes as permission to continue, “Alex hated it so much but every time you would run around your house setting everything up and then you would be the flower girl and the maid of honor and the ring bearer and the bride.” Lena chuckles at the memory, able to picture the little lace doily Kara would drape over her head as a veil. 

Kara finally turns from the mirror to regard the woman beside her, “We must have gotten married at least twenty times.” 

“At least.” Lena agrees, tentatively she reaches out a hand and smoothed it over the shoulder of Kara’s gown, “You look far lovelier now than with that doily on your head.” 

Kara laughs and feels herself leaning just a bit further into Lena's space, “I suppose your dress suits more than that tablecloth you used to dress up in too.”

They smile and Lena remembers how easy it used to be. She wonders when everything fell apart, and if there was really  a moment where she could have turned it around, where she could have saved them. 

Those questions are driven from her mind as she finally realizes how close Kara has gotten. Her throat runs dry and she doesn’t dare move because this definitely isn’t her move to make. Kara licks her lips, and Lena can’t help that her eyes follow the movement, and when the blonde leans in, her own lips part in anticipation. 

They are hardly a hair’s breadth away when the bathroom door swings open and Alex pokes her head in. The two women spring apart and Alex merely narrows her eyes, “It’s just about time to cut the cake, Kara.” 

The bride nods, and just as quickly Alex is gone. Lena crosses her arms protectively over her chest and they sit heavy in the knowledge of what just almost happened. Lena is the one who screws up her courage and she puts Kara first, “You should get back out there.” She whispers. 

“Yeah.” Kara knows that she’s right and that doesn’t make it any easier. She lingers for a moment, rocks on her toes, and nods, seemingly settling herself. As she walks around Lena to leave, she trails her fingers along the brunette’s arm. 

Lena waits a minute before following her out. She finds Jack and they join the crowd gathering to watch the couple cut the cake. She puts on a fake smile and she leans into his side and when Kara’s eyes catch hers, she doesn’t dare let her smile falter. Kara isn’t hers anymore. 

… 

Lena Luthor is eighteen and she is a sophomore in college. It’s the end of the fall semester and most of the campus has already left for home, and while she doesn’t for a second miss her own home,  Lillian or the family mansion that never felt like a home, or the accusatory stares she got all over town when people recognized her as the terrorist’s sister, she misses her best friend dearly. 

Over the previous summer break she had spent a few nights sleeping over at the Danvers, reconnecting with the friend she had left behind last year in Midvale. There was one morning, she woke up pillowed against Kara’s chest, the blonde was already awake and smiled upon seeing Lena waking. Lena pressed a kiss to Kara’s cheek and grinned at the blush that it rose and she let herself wonder what could be. 

But she didn’t dare do anything further. 

Because after that attack, after Lex was arrested she didn’t hear from Kara for three days. Three days where Lena’s entire world fell apart and she didn’t even have her best friend to fall back on. And if being a Luthor taught her anything, it was that trust was earned not given and she hated how those three days held her back, but she just couldn’t let herself go when she had doubts if Kara was still the same little girl with the pigtails and scraped knees who was determined to go to the moon who defended her on the playground when they were children. 

On the fourth day she heard from the blonde, and they had done their best, but it wasn’t the same. 

Now she is curled in her desk chair, hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun. Her desk is littered with large books and notes and she is working intently while soft music plays on her laptop. She checks the clock again and smiles, in two minutes she has a skype date. 

Exactly on time, her laptop rings signaling the incoming call, and Lena presses the green answer button. Her screen fills with the grainy image of Kara’s smiling face, “Lena!” The blonde shouts in excitement. 

“Kara.” She greets with a soft smile. The connection isn’t the best, and there’s background noise from Kara’s loud dorm, but it’s her Kara and it’s something, “How’s your semester been?” They had been texting and snapchatting, and they’d had practice at long distance friendship last year and when Lena was in boarding school, but now Kara was distracted with her first year of college, and it felt like it had been ages since Lena had talked to her. 

“It’s good! I’m making so many new friends, and I joined like at least twelve clubs.” 

Lena chuckles because of course she did, “That sounds great, Kar. You are going to classes, right?” 

“Of course I am!” Kara mocks offense, “You’re not working too hard, are you? I can see your Luthor stress look.” 

Lena smiles because Kara never says her last name like an insult. She still remembers back in middle school when Kara would accuse her of overworking herself and say that she and Lex both got the same exact look on their faces when they got too stressed. Kara knew the Lex that was just Lena’s big brother. 

“It's just a few final projects and prepping for my winter research.” Lena evades answering the question. Kara sees right through it. 

“Just take care of yourself.” 

“I will.” They fall into a comfortable silence, and Lena just watches her friend, taking in the bits of her dorm she can see in the background, the familiar smile on the girl’s face, God she misses the blonde, “Tell me everything, how are finals going?” 

“Good!” Kara launches into a little ramble about her roommate and some boy named Winn she’s become good friends with and right in the middle of a story about some party a senior down the hall was throwing for the end of the semester that she ended up roped into going, her voice crackles with static. 

Lena frowns, “What did you say, you're breaking up.”

“I asked when you're coming home. Are you gonna be in town at all for Christmas?”

“No.” Lena bites her lip a little apprehensively. She had told Kara earlier that she was staying for January term at her university but hadn't quite gone into detail, “I’m not going home at all.”

“You cannot spend Christmas alone in your dorm, Lena.”

“I won't! Some of my friends are staying too.” Lena expects Kara to pick up on the lie, but either because of the static in the call, or because she desperately hopes it is true, Kara doesn't call her out on it. Lena’s heart falls because Kara always used to be able to tell when she was lying. 

“What about Spring break?”

“I'm staying for that too.” Lena says and sue her if maybe she feels just a bit of self righteousness at the deepening of Kara’s frown because it’s not like the blonde has exactly been reaching out to her with any sort of determination. She knows that it’s juvenile to think that way, but she’s young and she’s hurting. 

“Summer?” The hopeful light in Kara’s eyes mixed with desperation, and Lena took no joy in crushing it. 

“I have an internship in National City.”

“So when are you going to be in Midvale again?”

“I honestly don't know, Kar. It's just really hard right now after everything with Lex and then my mother. It just doesn't feel like there’s anything left for me in Midvale.”

Kara’s voice is so quiet that when combined with the static of the call, Lena nearly misses the next words, “I’m still in Midvale.”

“You know I didn’t mean it like that.” 

Kara frowns and looks down out of frame, “I know.” 

“What’re you thinking?” 

“Nothing.” Kara defends, “It’s just.” She stops and sets her lips in a line like she’s screwing up her courage for something, “I just always thought you were going to come back for me.” 

“Kara, I-” But the connection freezes and Lena’s eyes widen at the stuck image of Kara on her screen, “Fuck! I didn't mean it like that.” Lena clicks insistently on her trackpad, “Kara, can you hear me? I think the connections down. Damn it!” She swears, clicking a few more times and trying desperately to reconnect, “Kara, I didn't mean it like that!” She knows there’s no way the blonde can hear her, but she can't leave it like that. 

She picks up her cell to dial Kara and continue the conversation but it goes straight to voicemail. Kara maintains radio silence for a week. A week in which Lena is completely and utterly alone. She is the only student left in her dormitory, another student is working in her lab, but she’s never talked to him before and she doesn't break the silence now. It snows and campus is turned into a winter wonderland that usually brings Lena joy but now just reminds her of the holiday she’s spending in solitude. 

On Christmas morning, there's a crack and Kara sends her a photo of her and Alex squished together wearing horrid sweaters with the message of ‘Merry Christmas, Lee.’ 

It was something and Lena has a little smile as she heads into the lab through the still falling snow. When she arrives, she stops short, there are string lights strung up all around and the saddest little Christmas tree in the corner with lab equipment decorating it as ornaments. The other student has beat her to the lab and now he sits at his bench, bent over a microscope. He turns when he hears Lena’s entry and his lips are twisted in a little sheepish smile. 

“I thought it might be nice to get a bit festive in here.” Lena doesn't reply for a moment and he immediately back tracks, “I can take it down if you don't like it, it just thought since we’re both here alone and I was feeling a bit-”

Lena holds up a hand to halt his ramble, it brings a smile to her face and reminds her of Kara, “It's great.”

His smile matches hers as his shoulder drop in relief, “There’s eggnog in the fridge.”

“Thanks.” Lena sheds her coat and scarf, deciding to throw caution to the winds. She crosses to the fridge and finds two clean beakers they can use as mugs. She pours the two of them some eggnog and hands the boy one of the beakers, “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas.” The boy echoes, clinking his beaker against hers, they drink a brief toast, “I'm sorry, but what's your name?”

“Lena. Yours?”

“Jack.”

They smile again and Lena returns to her own lab bench. She may only have some of Kara left, but maybe the missing piece won't make her collapse in on herself. 

… 

Lena Luthor is fifteen and she skipped a grade so she’s a junior in high school and she's still smarter than most of the kids in the elite boarding school her mother shipped her off to as soon as she turned thirteen. She’s fifteen and she's finally read all of the Harry Potter books and her older brother is one of her best friends even if he's away at college and she doesn't hear from him very much anymore. Her other best friends are Veronica and Kara but Veronica doesn't really count because she's only a friend because she's the only girl at this school who doesn't take Lena seriously. And that's oddly important to Lena. 

Veronica is the only one who doesn't hang off her every word and who doesn't smile at her like the sun shines out of her ass because her family’s got enough money to buy the school twenty times over and because she has privately tutored classes from a local university professor. 

But she's nothing compared to Kara. 

Kara is fifteen and she goes to Midvale high which is exactly three hours and forty eight minutes away from Lena’s boarding school by car- three hours and twenty six minutes if Kara can convince Alex to speed twenty over the limit on the open stretches of highway where they know no cops ever hang out- and she makes the trip as often as she can. 

They’ve been best friends since Kara decided they were at six years old and nine years of sleepovers and secrets and movies and manicures has only solidified that bond. Neither of them can wait because in exactly twelve days Kara is going to turn sixteen and she’ll get her license and then she can drive up and visit whenever she wants instead of just when she can convince Alex to take her. Because as hard as they try, sustaining a best friendship can be difficult over skype calls and texts and Snapchat streaks and one day Lena breaks their streak and Kara takes it much more personally then either of them expect. 

On her next visit, Kara is short and she is moody and when Lena brings it up, the blonde swears it's not because of the Snapchat streak, “God would you just drop it Lee?”

“You're acting weird and if you would just tell me why, I could apologize and fix it.”

“There's nothing to fix.” Kara insists, running a hand through her hair and mussing up the curls. 

Lena drops it for all of five seconds before she asks in a barely there whisper, “Is it because I told you I kissed Veronica?”

“No!” Kara lies. 

“Because you're still my best friend, this doesn't change anything.”

“I know that, Lee.”

“Okay.” The brunette lets them lapse into silence as she taps her pen against the table, “Have you, ya know?” 

Kara blushes brilliantly red, and Lena cannot help but still think that the look is one of her favorites on the blonde, “No, I mean not that I haven’t had the opportunity, but I just haven’t I dunno know, wanted to yet.” 

Kara will never admit that she thought that she already had. She will never admit how much it hurt when Lena had called her in the middle of the night the week before all excited that she had her first kiss. Because Kara wouldn’t forget the night they were eleven years old and watching a movie in Kara’s basement and when the two onscreen loves kissed, Lena snuggled into her side and looked up at her with those wide green eyes so pure and full of love and the smallest hint of insecurity.

“Kara, what if I mess up my first kiss?”

“You won't Lee, you're perfect at everything.” She had said with a sense of finality. 

“Cause I practice everything.” Lena shot back, “You can't practice a first kiss, there's only one.”

“You can too practice kissing.” Kara argued. 

“Who would I practice kissing with?” 

Kara mumbled an answer, blushing to the tips of her ears, Lena merely cocked an eyebrow up to encourage her to repeat herself, “I could help you practice.” Kara whispered. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” 

Lena nodded and pulled herself into a proper sitting position, crisscross applesauce in front of Kara and looked directly at the taller girl, her expression all together entirely too serious, “Ready?”

“Y-yeah.” Kara stuttered. 

Lena placed her hands on Kara’s cheeks and studied her for a second before shifting in, when she got close she tilted her head to the side and let her eyes slide closed as her lips landed on Kara's. The blonde inhaled sharply in surprise that it was actually happening, she was kissing Lena, her best friend, she didn't dare close her eyes for fear that the moment would end and she would miss it. They stayed like that, gentle chaste pressure of lips on lips for a few beats before Lena pulled back, her eyes fluttering open and her bottom lip drawing between her teeth uncertainly. 

“How was that?” 

Kara didn't answer, she was too busy staring at Lena’s lip, the one caught between her teeth, the one she had felt pressed against her own mere moments before. She desperately wanted to do it again. 

“Kara?” The brunette finally cracked a smile, waving a hand in front of her friend’s face, “Was it really that bad?”

“No, it was great Lee.” The shorter girl’s smile was impossibly wide as she sat back on her heels and curled back into Kara’s side to finish watching the movie. 

Now sitting stubbornly across from Lena in the brunette’s dorm room, Kara cannot admit that she already had her first kiss, and it was perfect. It was everything she could have imagined and she only wishes that Lena felt the same. But Lena’s friendship means more than just about anything so Kara plasters on a smile and forces a change in conversation topic, “Eliza said that when I turn sixteen Alex has to share the car with me.” 

“So you can visit whenever you want.” 

“Yeah.” Kara smiles. She knows that it will hurt, that she’s loved Lena for as long as she can remember and she had always assumed that one day they would be it for each other. Learning that Lena so blatantly doesn’t feel the same way is killing her. She may have lost a small bit of her best friend, but she still has most of Lena, and fuck if she’ll let it go. 

… 

Lena Luthor is seven years old and she can count higher than anyone else in second grade and she has her times tables memorized up to twelve which is better than most of the fourth graders and she’s read the first three Harry Potter books all by herself. But Lex won't let her read the fourth one because he says it's too scary for her which she thinks is stupid since she’s not a baby. 

Lena Luthor preens under the attention when her teacher tells her how much of a wonderful and smart girl she is. 

But not during recess. In those dismal forty five minutes of outdoor play Lena sits under her tree on the edge of the playground where everyone knows to leave her alone and she reads. Sometimes she watches the other children running around, but mostly she keeps to herself. Her therapist calls it antisocial behavior but Lena just says it's because she doesn't need to deign to that level (she learned that word last week when she was reading Pride and Prejudice) and she insists she doesn't need a therapist because she's adjusted to living with the Luthors just fine thank you very much. Her mother agrees, but Lena suspects it has more to do with that one time Dr. Goldstein suggested she come to an appointment with Lena instead of always having the nanny bring her. Lillian was not thrilled about that suggestion in the slightest. 

So Lena continues monthly to therapy and she sits under her tree alone at recess and she does not play well with others. Until Kara happens. Lena has seen the little blonde girl before, she’s in the other second grade class but their recess blocks line up and she does not sit under a tree alone. She also doesn't swing or make daisy chains like the other second grade girls. No, Kara plays soccer with the boys. 

She's pretty good too, Lena knows this because once or twice she may have peeked over her book and seen the blonde girl score on whatever boy was playing goalie. But she has a temper and that's what attracts Lena to trouble one day when she is reading her book and hears shouting on the nearby soccer pitch. 

One boy is on the ground and Kara is standing over him with her hands on her hips and her little brow furrowed in anger, “I was open Mike! Why didn't you pass me the ball?”

“I didn't need to!” Mike shouts back, and him, Lena recognizes from class. He's been a thorn in her side ever since they were next to each other on the seating chart and he kept sticking gum between the pages of her books when she wasn't looking. 

“Yes you did! You got knocked over cause you're not as good at dribbling.”

“Am too!”

“Are not!”

Lena scans a look around and finds the two teachers in charge of monitoring recess talking near the four square grids, neither taking notice of the brewing fight. 

“You’re just mad cause I'm better!” The blonde accuses. 

“No you're not! You're a girl.” The boy has gotten to his feet now and he sneers the last word like an insult. 

Lena may only be seven but she also understands basic feminism and she isn't about to let another girl take that shit. With a decisive snap she shuts her book and makes her way down to the field where the other two seven year olds are facing off. 

“That doesn’t mean anything! I'm still better.” The blonde girl’s cheeks are steadily turning pink in the exertion of yelling and Lena can't help smiling a little bit at the sight.

“Yes it does, you shouldn't even play with us cause you're a girl.” The little boy says with an air of finality. 

“That's not fair and you're being discriminatory.” Lena declares when she’s finally drawn up to the assembled group. 

“Oh shove off, Lena Library Luthor.” The boy glares, throwing out one of the less original nicknames that Lena’s been stuck with. 

“I doubt you even know what discriminatory means.” She stands her ground with as much determination as a seven year old can muster considering she's a solid few inches shorter than the boy, and has always been on the wispy side. 

“It means you should go back to your tree and mind your own business, egghead.”

Seeing no other option, and finally letting loose with some of the anger that Lena’s been letting build up since the beginning of the year at Mike, the brunette raises her book up over her head and brings it down with a satisfying thud over Mike’s. Of course that’s when the teachers finally take notice of the disagreement and come running over to separate the fight breaking out as Mike lunges at the thin girl and she swings her book again. 

Lena, Kara, and Mike all get punished with indoor recess time for a whole week. On the first day, Kara sits down right next to Lena and begins to color. The brunette looks up from her book to regard the other girl with a confused stare, “What are you doing?”

“Drawing a rocket.” Kara says as though it's obvious. 

“Why?”

“Cause one day I’m gonna go to the moon.”

“No, why are you doing that here?”

Kara looks up at Lena for the first time, fixing the smaller girl with a determined look, “Cause you're my best friend now.” 

And that was that. Kara sits next to Lena for the rest of their punishment and when they are allowed back outside, she doesn't quit. Every day when they are released for recess, Kara sprints through the crowd to find the brunette and she threads their fingers together as she walks with Lena out to her tree on the edge of the playground. There Kara gives her best friend a quick hug and says ‘See ya later, Lee!’ And runs off to go play soccer. Lena reads and sneaks glances at the blonde around her books. When the bell rings Kara runs back to escort Lena all the way back to the line to go back into the school. 

They are best friends, and Lena is all Kara’s. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Promised a happy/hopeful ending. Thanks for reading. LMK what you thought.

Lena Luthor is thirty and she’s so completely in love. She’s in the big park in the middle of National City and she’s sitting on a bench watching the kids on the playground in front of her. They are swinging and sliding and running around screaming in excitement. It’s a scene Lena is used to- every Friday right after preschool ends, Lena brings her daughter to the park and lets the little girl run off some energy. 

Now Lorelai has engaged in a game of tag with some similarly sized kids and is happily sprinting across the grass away from a boy who must be ‘it’. She smiles and watches as the boy catches up to her and gently tags her on the arm. She shrieks in delight and turns to return the chase. 

Lena lets her head fall back for a moment, she rubs the base of her neck, trying to massage out a knot. 

The last week had been hellish, her company was ramping up for a big technology release, racing their biggest competitor to be the first to drop a prototype for an olympic grade swimming leg prosthetic. Lena was putting out fires on both the tech and political ends, and the late nights were finally getting to her. That plus Lorelai had been having trouble sleeping lately, she always seemed to pick up on when her Mommy wasn’t sleeping much and the little girl had snuck into Lena’s room in the middle of the night every night for the last week and a half. 

She hears an excited squeal and her eyes shoot open, searching for where she last saw Lorelai. There is only empty grass. Immediately her heart rate shoots up, and she stands, “Lorelai?” She circles the play structure, seeking out the bright green shirt that her daughter was wearing, “Lori, sweetie, where are you?” 

Around the park, other mothers are beginning to look at her in concern. Her shouts are finally answered by the excited voice of her daughter, “Mommy!”

Lena breathes a sigh of relief as she rounds the play structure again to find Lorelai in a small crowd of kids gathered around a golden lab. She searches around for the owner of the dog and can see a blonde woman approaching from the edge of the park. Lena has half a mind to lecture her about letting a dog off leash in a public park, but she is more concerned with getting to her kid. 

She crosses the grass and bends down to Lorelai’s height, “Lori, we’ve talked about wandering off. You know better than to go where Mommy can’t see you.” 

“I’m sorry.” The girl frowns, and her little face scrunched in a contrite expression almost makes Lena lose her resolve, but she knows that she has to have these kinds of talks with Lorelai. 

“It’s okay, bug. I just want you to be safe. And what are you supposed to do before you pet a dog?” 

“I’m ‘posed to ask.” Lorelai says to her sneakers. 

“Did you?” 

“No.” 

Lena knew the answer before she asked, and her only consolation is that Lorelai seems apologetic and seems to know that what she did was wrong. She stands up straight and lifts Lorelai onto her hip, the girl lays her head against Lena’s shoulder and swings her legs contentedly. 

“I’m so sorry about my dog, he took off sprinting once we got to the park and I dropped his leash.” 

Lena turns and her spine stiffens, “Kara.” 

“Lee.” 

The two stare at each other for a moment, both shocked silent. The first thing Lena notices inexplicably is that Kara is tall, they had always been close in height growing up, and they both had been wearing heels at the wedding, but now both in flats, Lena has to look up to make eye contact. The blonde is wearing simple leggings and a sweater, and Lena thinks that a grown up Kara is so soft and lovely. Finally Lorelai is the one who speaks up, “Mommy, who’s Lee?” 

The brunette tears her eyes away from the woman in front of her and puts on a smile for her daughter, “Hey bug, why don’t you go down the slide a few more times before we have to go home, I’ll watch you from right here. Okay?” 

The girl sends a wary look at Kara before nodding, “Okay.” 

Lena puts her down and watches her run off towards the slide. Once she’s out of earshot, Lena gives her attention to the blonde, raising an eyebrow and encouraging the inevitable questions that Kara must have. 

“Cute kid.” 

Lena wants to roll her eyes, but she smiles instead, “Thank you.” 

They stand awkwardly and Kara tries again, “How old is she, like five?” 

“Four and a half.”    
Kara nods, she didn't know what she was expecting when she moved to National City and took her dog on a quick walk as a break from unpacking, but running into Lena Luthor with a little girl that is the spitting image of the brunette when she was younger who calls her ‘Mommy’ certainly wasn't it. She sends a glance towards Lena’s left hand and she can't really help that a relieved smile lifts the corner of her mouth when she sees no ring. 

“How is Mike?”

Kara ruffles her hair a bit uncomfortably, “We got divorced about a year ago.”

“Oh, I'm sorry.”

“Nah, it was amicable.” The blonde shrugs, she had kept the whole thing relatively quiet so she isn't entirely surprised that Lena didn't know. That and Lena herself had nearly completely withdrawn from social media years ago when she took over L-Corp and further when Lorelai was born, “Plus I got full custody of Neil.” She jokes, scratching between her dog’s ears and hoping to segue a conversation towards Lena’s kid’s other parent. 

It doesn't work, “And you live in National City now?”

“Yeah, I just moved into a townhouse with a friend from college.”

Lena nods, her eyes mostly fixed on where Lorelai is patiently waiting her turn at the slide. She is up next and yells over to make sure that she has Lena’s attention before kicking off, “I'm watching, bug.” Lena promises, her voice soft. 

Kara marvels at the woman in front of her, the incredible and compassionate mother that her childhood best friend has grown into. Lorelai goes down the slide and pops up immediately to run around and rejoin the line, “Last time!” Lena warns. The little girl frowns in an expression that so perfectly matches her mother, it throws Kara. 

“She looks just like you.” Kara can't help but comment. 

“I know, she got Jack’s curls but other than that it’s a little creepy how similar she looks.” Lena smiles wistfully. 

“What does Jack do?”

“He passed four years ago.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Lena shakes her head, eyes trained on Lorelai, “It was an inoperable brain tumor he kept hidden for months. We never expected Lorelai but when we found out he was so excited. He said he wanted to do everything right, he proposed, made her a trust fund, everything he could think to do. We never got married though, we were always better friends than we could hope to be a couple, and he passed a few months after she was born. We named her after his mother.” Lena doesn't know why she’s opening up so much like this. After Jack died she's had such a hard time letting anyone in, but telling Kara feels so easy. 

The blonde doesn't say anything, just tentatively holds out her hand in some sort of offering. Lena takes it and threads their fingers together. It's not the same as when they were seven and Kara would walk Lena across the playground, but they still fit perfectly. And now standing watching her daughter go down the slide once more with Kara beside her, Lena feels just a little more at peace. 

Lorelai runs over, having completed her final go on the slide and Lena drops Kara’s hand. The girl shyly latches onto Lena’s pant leg, half hiding behind her mother as she looks up at the adults with big eyes. 

“Did you have fun, bug?” Lena asks. 

The girl nods and tugs at Lena's jacket in a silent request to be picked up. She holds in a sigh but plucks up Lorelai to settle her on her hip, the kid really was not a fan of strangers.

“We should probably go, the afternoon’s never fun if she doesn't get a nap before four.” 

“Of course.” Kara says, shifting awkwardly, “It was uh, nice to see you again.”

“You as well.” Lena smiles once more before turning. She bounces Lorelai a bit higher on her hip, the girl laying her head down on her mother’s shoulder, her energy already nearly gone from the excitement of running around at the park, “Are you a little sleepy?” Leans teases. 

“No.” The girl has inherited Lena’s stubbornness, that's for sure, and she resolutely tries to keep her eyes open even as the gentle sway of Lena’s walk is killing her to sleep. Lena pauses to grab her large Mom Bag from the bench where she had abandoned it earlier and makes it halfway out of the park before she hears something approaching quickly. 

It's Kara, hair in slight disarray, cheeks flushed from running, dog by her side looking excited at their little sprint, “Would you maybe want to grab coffee or something and catch up sometime?”

Lena smiles because Kara with a blush on her cheeks, and her hair mussed up has always been her favorite Kara, “Yeah, I’d like that.”

“Great.” Kara beams. She watches Lena walk away and hopes maybe this time they can get it right. 


End file.
